This 4K video of Saturns rings will make you wish you had a 4K TV

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If you pre-ordered that sweet 4K monitor the other day, you might want to start buffering this amazing IMAX trailer now. Really, get going on this. It’s going to take a while. In Saturn’s Rings is an upcoming IMAX film composed high-resolution still images from the Cassini space probe. The trailer is being made available on YouTube in the original 4K resolution, but you need a serious connection — and display — to stream it.

You can watch the YouTube trailer in 4K by selecting “Original” from the quality menu. It’s best to give it a few minutes to buffer before you try playing. Of course, you can still watch in other resolutions more suited to your monitor.

The Cassini space probe arrived in orbit around Saturn after making stop offs at several other planets. Ever since then it has been taking stunning images of Saturn and its moons. These pictures are the basis for the film, but the experience is going to be something unique. In Saturn’s Rings uses over 1 million images taken by Cassini as it journeyed through space, but this is a movie. How do we get from still images to moving pictures?

Filmmaker Stephen van Vuuren used “2.75D photographic fly-through” in order to make the still images look animated. This might involve using hundreds of thousands of images to make each shot. He is careful to point out that no computer generated effects were used in the final product. What you’re seeing is all real and stunningly beautiful, even below 4K.

In Saturn’s Rings will be in IMAX theaters in the Spring of 2014. Space nerds, take note.